One to Watch

April Zanne Johnson

April Zanne Johnson was born in 1970 in Hackensack, New Jersey. She is a graduate of Parsons School of Design/The New School for Social Research (1993) and received her MFA at Montclair State University where she was awarded the 2013 Dedalus Foundation Fellowship. She currently lives 45 minutes outside New York surrounded by nature which, along with her interest in science, has a major impact on her paintings. Her work has been exhibited and held in museum collections on three continents.

She describes her recent paintings as “portals into the possibilities that lie beyond our present visual technology”. She is interested in exploring the effect of light on color which is one of the reasons that she applies oil paint onto Plexiglass, a smooth, clear surface that allows more light to enter as well as greater fluidity. Recurring motifs, linear forms, expressionist brush marks and other painterly strokes are combined in each work to create a dense and energetic whole.